I think I can honestly say that I have never read anything qute like this before. It cost me a night's sleep because, having read it cover to cover without being able to put it down, I had to keep re-reading sections.

Flora is 17, but has amnesia. Although her early memories are there, she can't remember things from day to day- or even hour to hour. Her hands hold her immediate memories as she covers them with key words and phrases to help her through. Her name and the words 'be brave' are tattooed there as permanent reminders. Her world is Penzance in Cornwall where her parents shelter her from everything.

Then, one night, she does something she shouldn't- kisses a boy she shouldn't- and to her amazement, she remembers it. She becomes obsessed with the memory and is determined to find him- even if it means following him to the end of the earth.

Flora is an open book- her raw emotions flow, childlike, across the page in her thoughts and the many notes and memory prompts she writes to herself. The reader is taken with her as she remembers, forgets and remembers again the events on the beach that lead her to take some control of her life and set off in pursuit of the boy of her dreams.

As events unfold, we learn more about Flora's condition and the complexity of her family situation. Naive and vulnerable through she is, Flora is full of an inner strength and determination which cannot be supressed. This is not a love-sick girl 'cured' by love's first kiss; there is so much more to Flora than that and the novel carries a strong feeling of the importance of being yourself and finding your own way.